The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach: ”El Camino’ isn’t my favourite record’

The frontman says he prefers 2010's 'Brothers' to their most recent album

The Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach has said that his band’s 2011 album, ‘El Camino’, isn’t his favourite record by the duo.

The singer and guitarist says that he prefers his and drummer Patrick Carney’s 2010 album, ‘Brothers’. He said: “It isn’t my favourite record. I much prefer ‘Brothers’.”

Speaking to the Telegraph, he added that producer Danger Mouse (Brian Burton) encouraged the band to write that album’s songs ‘in reverse’.

Auerbach explained: “Brian’s suggestion was to come up with the vocal melodies first, then the lyrics had to fit around them. For me, it was like writing a song in reverse — not my style at all, but that’s why it was cool.”

Carney went on to say that the fact that the band are now playing arenas is ‘surreal’. He said: “The first time we played an arena in Canada, it was a bit surreal. But every time you double your crowd, you ask yourself, ‘Do I have to do something different?’ The answer is, ‘You absolutely should not do anything different. You should do whatever it is that got you into those places in the first place’. Through the history of rock’n’roll, you see lots of bands making the mistake of putting on the tights when they get to arenas. Don’t do that.”

The Black Keys are currently touring the UK. They will play Manchester Arena tomorrow (December 11) and the tour will conclude at London’s O2 Arena on December 12 and 13.

The band have been nominated for five gongs at next year’s Grammy Awards. The band are on the shortlist for Best Album for their ‘El Camino’ LP and Record Of The Year for ‘Lonely Boy’, while Dan Auerbach is also nominated for Producer Of The Year for his work on the band’s own record as well as releases by Dr. John and Hacienda. See Grammy.com for a full list of nominations.